Mind Sports South Africa's (MSSA) blog on competitive gaming in South Africa from proto-computer gaming all the way through to the most modern. For more about MSSA go to: https://www.facebook.com/mindsportssa/

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

The road to Baku: South Africa to take on Finland in Dota 2 and StarCraft 2

As interest and excitement grows within the selected team for the
IeSF's 2014 World Championships to be held in Baku from 12 to 17
November

2014, both the Federation and
the team members are hard at work trying to ready themselves for
the test of the year.

Through the IeSF's on-line test matches, South Africa is able to
test the team against worthy adversaries. The European teams of
course, are able to attend many more tournaments than what
cash-strapped South Africans can, and thus develop their teams to
apparently unassailable heights.

However, through South African determination and sheer fortitude,
South African gamers have been able to, from time-to-time, scale
the misconceptions and establish themselves as contenders in the
highly competitive world of eSports.

The on-line test
matches thus provide a valuable platform for the South African
eSports players to

test themselves against the international
opposition, have a critical look at their tactics and prepare
for the upcoming 2014 World Championships to be held in Baku.

The first test
match that the Protea Dota 2 played against, in the current
season, was Egypt. Many valuable lessons were learned.

It is now the time
for South Africa to face Finland.

The Finnish
eSports Federation (FeSF) has selected the top Finnish players
to play for Team Finland in IeSF WC 2014 held in Baku.

FeSF is proud to have Vesa "Welmu" Hovinen from Team NewRoSoft
to represent Finland in StarCraft II. This 20-year old world
class player has been the best Finnish StarCraft II player for
the past two years and arguably one of the top players outside
Korea. Welmu participated Premier League during the last WCS
Season 2 making it to round of 16, visiting shortly Challenger
League to secure a spot in WCS Season 3 Premier League.

The FeSF has
selected Niina "Soyhi" Kahela to represent Finland as their
female competitor in StarCraft II. Niina is a world class
player who, at the 2013 World Championships - Bucharest,
proved to be tha fierce competitor.

For Dota 2, this
year's Finnish line-up consist of such players as Kalle
"Trixi" Saarinen from Fnatic and ex-pro-player Jesse "jerAx"
Vainikka, who still plays world-class Dota 2 and might be seen
again on the pro-scene in the future. Other three players
(Okke, Hopis and fragi) are from the Finnish scene and not as
well known as Trixi and jerAx but play on national top level.
Interesting fact is also that fragi used to play for Finnish
World number 1 placed World of Warcraft guild Paragon during
earlier expansions up to Cataclysm.

The Test Match
will be held on Saturday, 4 October 2014 from 14H00.

The StarCraft II
matches will begin at 14H00 for the males and from 15H00 for
the females.

MWEB has kindly allowed the MSSA to use its Mcave which is
located in its head office in Cape Town for the Dota 2 team and
for the men's game f StarCraft II.

Wits University shall be the venue for the women's game of
StarCraft II.

The MSSA is
confident that the National Team that will represent South
Africa with pride and honour, is without doubt the finest team
that it has fielded.

Thanks to the governing Sports Body, Minds Sports South Africa
(MSSA) and the support given by MWEB Gaming , the South African
participation in such test matches is becoming a regular
occurrence.

With eSports now recognised as a fully recognised sport by both
SASCOC and the government, gaming is now taken more seriously
than ever before. Already gaming has been included into the
Asian Games by the Asian Olympic Committee.

There is no doubt that the South African team has its work cut
out for it. The Finnish team is not an easy match, and the South
African team will be tested.